The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker (books to read in your 20s TXT) 📕

Chapter II Strange Instructions

Superintendent Dolan went quietly to the door; by a sort of natural

understanding he had taken possession of affairs in the room. The rest

of us waited. He opened the door a little way; and then with a gesture

of manifest relief threw it wide, and a young man stepped in. A young

man clean-shaven, tall and slight; with an eagle face and bright, quick

eyes that seemed to take in everything around him at a glance. As he

came in, the Superintendent held out his hand; the two men shook hands

warmly.

 

“I came at once, sir, the moment I got your message. I am glad I still

have your confidence.”

 

“That you’ll always have,” said the Superintendent heartily. “I have

not forgotten our old Bow Street days, and I never shall!” Then,

without a word of preliminary, he began to tell everything he knew up to

the moment of the newcomer’s entry. Sergeant Daw asked a few questions—a

very few—when it was necessary for his understanding of circumstances or

the relative positions of persons; but as a rule Dolan, who knew his

work thoroughly, forestalled every query, and explained all necessary

matters as he went on. Sergeant Daw threw occasionally swift glances

round him; now at one of us; now at the room or some part of it; now at

the wounded man lying senseless on the sofa.

 

When the Superintendent had finished, the Sergeant turned to me and

said:

 

“Perhaps you remember me, sir. I was with you in that Hoxton case.”

 

“I remember you very well,” I said as I held out my hand. The

Superintendent spoke again:

 

“You understand, Sergeant Daw, that you are put in full charge of this

case.”

 

“Under you I hope, sir,” he interrupted. The other shook his head and

smiled as he said:

 

“It seems to me that this is a case that will take all a man’s time and

his brains. I have other work to do; but I shall be more than

interested, and if I can help in any possible way I shall be glad to do

so!”

 

“All right, sir,” said the other, accepting his responsibility with a

sort of modified salute; straightway he began his investigation.

 

First he came over to the Doctor and, having learned his name and

address, asked him to write a full report which he could use, and which

he could refer to headquarters if necessary. Doctor Winchester bowed

gravely as he promised. Then the Sergeant approached me and said sotto

voce:

 

“I like the look of your doctor. I think we can work together!”

Turning to Miss Trelawny he asked:

 

“Please let me know what you can of your Father; his ways of life, his

history—in fact of anything of whatsoever kind which interests him, or

in which he may be concerned.” I was about to interrupt to tell him

what she had already said of her ignorance in all matters of her father

and his ways, but her warning hand was raised to me pointedly and she

spoke herself.

 

“Alas! I know little or nothing. Superintendent Dolan and Mr. Ross

know already all I can say.”

 

“Well, ma’am, we must be content to do what we can,” said the officer

genially. “I’ll begin by making a minute examination. You say that you

were outside the door when you heard the noise?”

 

“I was in my room when I heard the queer sound—indeed it must have been

the early part of whatever it was which woke me. I came out of my room

at once. Father’s door was shut, and I could see the whole landing and

the upper slopes of the staircase. No one could have left by the door

unknown to me, if that is what you mean!”

 

“That is just what I do mean, miss. If every one who knows anything

will tell me as well as that, we shall soon get to the bottom of this.”

 

He then went over to the bed, looked at it carefully, and asked:

 

“Has the bed been touched?”

 

“Not to my knowledge,” said Miss Trelawny, “but I shall ask Mrs. Grant—

the housekeeper,” she added as she rang the bell. Mrs. Grant answered

it in person. “Come in,” said Miss Trelawny. “These gentlemen want to

know, Mrs. Grant, if the bed has been touched.”

 

“Not by me, ma’am.”

 

“Then,” said Miss Trelawny, turning to Sergeant Daw, “it cannot have

been touched by any one. Either Mrs. Grant or I myself was here all the

time, and I do not think any of the servants who came when I gave the

alarm were near the bed at all. You see, Father lay here just under the

great safe, and every one crowded round him. We sent them all away in a

very short time.” Daw, with a motion of his hand, asked us all to stay

at the other side of the room whilst with a magnifying-glass he examined

the bed, taking care as he moved each fold of the bedclothes to replace

it in exact position. Then he examined with his magnifying-glass the

floor beside it, taking especial pains where the blood had trickled over

the side of the bed, which was of heavy red wood handsomely carved.

Inch by inch, down on his knees, carefully avoiding any touch with the

stains on the floor, he followed the blood-marks over to the spot, close

under the great safe, where the body had lain. All around and about

this spot he went for a radius of some yards; but seemingly did not meet

with anything to arrest special attention. Then he examined the front

of the safe; round the lock, and along the bottom and top of the double

doors, more especially at the places of their touching in front.

 

Next he went to the windows, which were fastened down with the hasps.

 

“Were the shutters closed?” he asked Miss Trelawny in a casual way as

though he expected the negative answer, which came.

 

All this time Doctor Winchester was attending to his patient; now

dressing the wounds in the wrist or making minute examination all over

the head and throat, and over the heart. More than once he put his nose

to the mouth of the senseless man and sniffed. Each time he did so he

finished up by unconsciously looking round the room, as though in search

of something.

 

Then we heard the deep strong voice of the Detective:

 

“So far as I can see, the object was to bring that key to the lock of

the safe. There seems to be some secret in the mechanism that I am

unable to guess at, though I served a year in Chubb’s before I joined

the police. It is a combination lock of seven letters; but there seems

to be a way of locking even the combination. It is one of Chatwood’s; I

shall call at their place and find out something about it.” Then

turning to the Doctor, as though his own work were for the present done,

he said:

 

“Have you anything you can tell me at once, Doctor, which will not

interfere with your full report? If there is any doubt I can wait, but

the sooner I know something definite the better.” Doctor Winchester

answered at once:

 

“For my own part I see no reason in waiting. I shall make a full report

of course. But in the meantime I shall tell you all I know—which is

after all not very much, and all I think—which is less definite. There

is no wound on the head which could account for the state of stupor in

which the patient continues. I must, therefore, take it that either he

has been drugged or is under some hypnotic influence. So far as I can

judge, he has not been drugged—at least by means of any drug of whose

qualities I am aware. Of course, there is ordinarily in this room so

much of a mummy smell that it is difficult to be certain about anything

having a delicate aroma. I dare say that you have noticed the peculiar

Egyptians scents, bitumen, nard, aromatic gums and spices, and so forth.

It is quite possible that somewhere in this room, amongst the curios and

hidden by stronger scents, is some substance or liquid which may have

the effect we see. It is possible that the patient has taken some drug,

and that he may in some sleeping phase have injured himself. I do not

think this is likely; and circumstances, other than those which I have

myself been investigating, may prove that this surmise is not correct.

But in the meantime it is possible; and must, till it be disproved, be

kept within our purview.” Here Sergeant Daw interrupted:

 

“That may be, but if so, we should be able to find the instrument with

which the wrist was injured. There would be marks of blood somewhere.”

 

“Exactly so!” said the Doctor, fixing his glasses as though preparing

for an argument. “But if it be that the patient has used some strange

drug, it may be one that does not take effect at once. As we are as yet

ignorant of its potentialities—if, indeed, the whole surmise is correct

at all—we must be prepared at all points.”